Systems and methods for message-based distributed computing

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for message-based distributed computing systems and execution of message-based distributed applications on such systems. The present invention provides a Distributed Application Platform (DAP). The DAP architecture is “distributed” because functions of an application may be performed by processes within a single node, spread across nodes in a network, or spread across processor cores within CPUs. Some embodiments of the DAP provide efficient programming constructs, called sets. A set is a data structure describing an N-dimensional space. Each spatial location is either empty or holds a member. The set construct allows automatic extraction and processing of members with a single query, and makes programming an application for a distributed, parallel, or single computer environment easier for a user. In some embodiments, the DAP may be a message-based distributed computing system. The system receives instructions, builds and initiates an application, and may create a set in memory.

1 . A method executed by a processor for message-based distributed computing, the method comprises:
 receiving a plurality of instructions for an application, wherein:
 the instructions are organized into a plurality of message responses, each message response comprising:
 an expression; and 
 a set instance definition which identifies a plurality of members of the set for use by the expression, wherein:
 the set is a data structure having a plurality of dimensions; and 
 each member of the set is stored in a unique location defined by dimension values unique to each member, and comprises a scalar value which does not define the member's location in the set; and 
 the set instance definition identifies members of the set for use by the expression using dimension values; 
 
 
   building an application from the received plurality of instructions;   initiating execution of the application;   creating a set in memory for the application;   receiving, during execution of the application, an electronic message from a message stream, wherein the message comprises dimension values;   matching the message to a message response; and   executing the expression of the matched message response on the members of the set identified by the set instance definition, wherein the set instance definition identifies members using dimension values derived from the message.   
     
     
         2 - 36 . (canceled)